The article deals with the consequences of borrowing by Russian liberal reformers of the 60s. XIX century Western economic recipes for modernization (industrialization), which allegedly could not do without the widespread involvement of foreign capital. This economic policy was the introduction of the gold standard of the ruble in 1897, which led to the establishment of external debt dependence of Russia on foreign capital. For the complex of mining enterprises in Ossetia (the Sadonsky mine, the Alagirsky silver-lead plant), the above processes not only led to unprofitable enterprises, due to a sharp depreciation of the silver produced by enterprises, but also accelerated their transition from state property leased into private hands, since allegedly the state could not be an effective owner, and then to the establishment of foreign control over these strategically important enterprises for Russia (the lead smelted at the plant was demanded by the military department, and Russia imported zinc from abroad).
foreign capital
Liège bank
Vladikavkaz silver-lead plant
Mizurskaya enrichment plant
Sadon mine
enterprises of the society "Alagir"
ruble gold standard
1. CGA-RSO-A. F.11, op. 5, d. 308.
2. CGA RNO-A. F. 169, op. 1, file 522, l.l. 91-92.
3. TsGA RNO-A. F. 169, op. 1, file 66, l.l. 113-113 rev.
4. Voronin S.A. The main delusions of our time: from the Reformation to neoliberalism. The ecstasy of human pride. Reformation, Humanism, Enlightenment and Capitalism // Vestnik RUDN University. - 2014. - No. 4. - C. 10-31.
5. Katasonov V.Yu. Economic theory of the Slavophiles and modern Russia. "Paper ruble" S. Sharapova. - M.: Institute of Russian Civilization, 2014. - 656 p.
6. Katasonov V.Yu. Capitalism. History and ideology of "monetary civilization". - M.: Institute of Russian Civilization, 2015. - 1120 p.
7. Panarin A.S. Political science. Western and Eastern traditions: a textbook for universities. - URL: www. http://fanread.ru/book/7716694.
8. Russia and world business: deeds and destinies. Adolf Rothstein. Herman Spitzer. Rudolf Diesel. - M. : ROSSPEN, 1996. - 312 p.
9. Tesich Free. History of the Silver-lead-zinc plant "Sevkavtsink" // Proceedings of the North Ossetian Research Institute. - Ordzhonikidze, 1934. - T. VII. - 252 p.
10. Froyanov I.Ya. From Versailles to Viskuli // File-RF: daily electronic newspaper. - 12/23/2011. - URL: http://www.
Its economic, political and cultural life depends on the spiritual foundation of society. By the middle of the 19th century, Russian society, after the defeat in the Crimean War, in search of a way out of the crisis, turned its eyes to the West for European experience.
Purpose of the article: to follow the example of the mining enterprises of Ossetia, how the spiritual and moral guidelines of society influence its economic life how borrowing the values of the Western consumer society, its liberal theories (about non-intervention of the state in the economy, the rejection of the nationally oriented model of the economy, the hope for the saving role of foreign capital and the introduction of the gold standard of the ruble) affected the activities of Ossetian enterprises in the late XIX - early XX century . At the time under review, North Ossetia was part of the Terek region and covered the cities of Vladikavkaz and Mozdok, the Vladikavkaz district, parts of the Mozdok and Sunzha districts.
In post-reform Russia in the middle of the 19th century, the spiritual postulates of the Western Enlightenment thought about the freedom of the individual, the idea of the "equality of God" of man, were taken as a model. European society was going through complex processes, when "The Enlightenment and the French Revolution intensified and catalyzed parallel processes: the devastation of the soul and the deification of earthly nature, the idea of god-likeness was ugly transformed into godhood, reached its apogee in the concept of human deification ...". The European experience focused a person on the transformation of the external world, while the Russian person was primarily focused on inner work, the fight against passions, and spiritual perfection. A Russian person (a person of Russian civilization) had his own hierarchy of values: spiritual ones were higher than material ones. And Western theories stimulated a person to consume, but Russian society of the middle of the 19th century was subjected to the influence of these liberal theories. Darwin's theories of "natural selection" were directly projected onto man and social life (the "theory of competition" between commodity producers). According to A.S. Panarin, in the era of modernity, a society of "social Darwinism" is taking shape in Western countries. About what the chase is for material values struck the tops of Russian society in the era of liberal reforms, vividly illustrates the decision to sell Alaska, “... taken at a meeting of two figures of the banking world in May 1864 (an agreement with the United States was signed in 1867) - James Rothschild and Baron Alexander von Stieglitz ("the court banker" of the Russian emperor, and the manager of the State Bank), 7.2 million dollars only for the land area of 1,519,000 sq. km (excluding the coastline), i.e. cost of 1 sq. km. amounted to 4 dollars 73 cents ... The money received began to be plundered at the very top without leaving the cash desk and did not reach Russia, so the public was completely unaware of who put the money for Alaska in his pocket. It's well organized financial transaction A. Stieglitz and M.Kh. Reuterna".
Along with spiritual guidelines, Western financial-liberal theories were borrowed, according to which the market will “do everything by itself”. “The place of serious master ministers, like E.F. Kankrina, P.D. Kiselev, were occupied by completely frivolous people who denied even the idea of leadership national economy» . Management ceased to exist. A team of "young financiers" with "new thinking" (Ministers of Finance under Alexander II P.F. Brock (1852-1858), A.M. Knyazhevich (1858-1878), M.Kh. Reitern (1862-1878), S. A. Greig (1878-1880), A. A. Abaza (1880-1881)) in the 19th century argued that “the free play of market forces should not be interfered with” (i.e. “do not interfere with stockbrokers and usurers from engaging in market robbery "). The well-known Russian businessman Vasily Kokarev wrote that “the “new financiers” of the era of Alexander II conspired with our Western envious people ... to promote the idea ... of the impossibility of the Supreme Power to allow - without shaking finances - the printing of interest-free banknotes for any industrial and generally useful state needs ... We could build houses with this money at home, all the factories necessary for the railway business; but, for no reason or why, we did not dare to retreat from the fulfillment of a foreign dogma, which did not at all fit the image of All-Russian government, and completely obeyed the instructions of foreign economic writings ... Now we have loaded on the people's back such a debt of payment that absorbs almost a third of general results of state parishes". That is, according to these theories, the state should intervene minimally in the economy: there should not be an excess of money in the economy so that gold replaces money, which will automatically supply the economy with the necessary amount of money. In 1860, as a result of the financial reform, these liberal ideas began to be implemented in the Russian economic space, Russian market was opened to the influx of foreign capital, the ruble became convertible.
The introduction of the gold standard of the ruble, carried out by S.Yu., had especially serious consequences for the Russian economy. Witte. “As a result, Russia has "hooked" on the "golden needle" of the Rothschilds. For the period 1895-1914. external debt of Russia, which received a number of large loans in London and Paris, grew from 1.7 to 4.2 billion rubles, while the share external debt in total public debt Russia grew from 30 to 48%. On the eve of the First World War, Russia had the largest external debt. The cost of servicing the gigantic external debt from 63 million rubles. in 1895 jumped to 194 million rubles. in 1894. Such a serious dependence of Russia on external debts became one of the reasons for the tragic events in the history of our country at the beginning of the last century. The studies of B.V. Ananyich "Russia and international capital 1897-1914: Essays on history financial relations» and others Professor V.Yu. Katasonov believes that the introduction of the gold standard was “a mortally dangerous step that brought Russia to 1917... Any competent financier understands that if you introduce the gold standard, then you are putting your economy, your finances on the needle of gold loans... In As a result of this policy, Russia began the twentieth century. in terms of external debt, it was in first place ... foreign investors in many sectors of Russian industry seized more than half of the total authorized capital ... the possibilities of exporting from the country (especially grain) were complicated. Quoting the Russian economist Sharapov, V.Yu. Katasonov explains that “the gold currency was decided by Count Witte single-handedly and introduced in an obviously dishonest way, bypassing State Council and in violation of the direct will of the Sovereign. ... The count was only a conductor of the decision of the Rochilds. With the French banking house S.Yu. Witte was connected through the agent of the Ministry of Finance A.G. Rafalovich (from 1894 to 1917), directors of the St. Petersburg International Commercial and Russian-Asian Bank Adolf Rothstein and Herman Spitzer ("his brother Jacques Spitzer was an authorized representative of the large French banking house" N. Zh. and S. Bardak ", and another of his relatives, Adolf Spitzer, headed the German bureau of the Parisian banking house of the Rothschilds". From the correspondence between A. Rothstein and G. Spitzer in 1895, it can be seen that Witte coordinates the decision to introduce the gold standard with Lafite Street (Rothschilds): "decree by which the State Bank's gold backing fund has been increased... and the miserable remnants of silver from the fund are being removed... this is only a step along this path and others will follow, if only the merciful God is in good health, that is, the Rue Lafitte remains in good condition spirit and will support these steps." "Rothstein already had well-established personal ties with S. Yu. Witte, who in 1891 was still the Minister of Railways, and from the next year became Minister of Finance ... It is typical for Rothstein to rely, like Witte, on both German and French banking capital at the same time. The compiler of the collection of documents on the activities of A. Rotshtein and G. Spitzer in Russia I.A. Dyakonova draws attention to the fact that the peasant reform, construction railways in Russia were financed by placing government loans through an international banking syndicate with the participation of German bankers Mendelsohn and Co., S. Bleichreder", "Discount Gesellschaft" and the French Rothschilds. As a result of foreign loans, Russian landowners gradually went bankrupt and became dependent on foreign banks, so Professor Yu.V. Katasonov draws attention to the fact that "a financial shield for the country is no less important than a nuclear shield." The gold loans of the tsarist government, leading Russia into a debt loop, were beneficial to government officials, since foreign bankers generously paid the costs of bribing them. So, for the placement of only one 3% gold loan in the amount of 43 million francs, Witte's predecessor, Minister of Finance I.A. Vyshnegradsky received a “reward” (Verguntung) from French and German bankers in the amount of 180 thousand francs ....
Thus, “the creation of a shortage of money was beneficial to those who trade in money, i.e. usurers, it depresses the chief economic resource society - labor". “The Russian people, as best they could, resisted this kind of deflationary experiments conducted by the financial authorities: they created credit cooperatives and mutual lending societies. Merchants and entrepreneurs, where they could, replaced money with bills of exchange or barter. And some of the most energetic entrepreneurs have even created their own money. The most striking example is the money of S.I. Maltsov ... Russian industrialist, cavalry guard, retired major general, honorary member of the Society for the Promotion of Russian Trade and Industry ... created and used his own money in his fairly autonomous economy, which was spread over several provinces and included several dozen factories, plants and other enterprises. This local money was called cash receipts of the Maltsovsky factory district and went in this district along with legal credit notes.
Research material. The introduction of the gold standard of the ruble and the wide access of foreign capital to the Russian market hit hard on the large state-owned enterprise of Ossetia, launched in 1853 - the Alagir silver-lead plant and the related Sadon mine and the Mizur concentrator. Before the introduction of the gold standard for the ruble, silver from the Alagir plant was purchased by the Treasury, and it came to the Mint for minting a silver coin. Even at the stage of preparation for the introduction of the gold standard in 1892, instead of 1270 rubles, the treasury began to pay for a pood of silver produced by the Alagirsky plant. - 910 rubles, and then 600 rubles. This led to the unprofitability of the state-owned enterprise, so that the Ministry of Finance demanded the closure of the plant or the restoration of the profitability of the enterprise. Lead was in demand by the military department, and zinc was not used at the plant, it was considered an obstacle in the production of silver and was thrown into the dump as waste. “A colossal mountain of zinc blende crushed the mine area with a million pounds, crumbled, rolled into the Sadonka River, rammed the Georgian Military Highway. That is, in the conditions of depreciation of silver, the productivity of the plant, without the production of zinc, became unprofitable. The most interesting thing is that Russia imported zinc from abroad.
At the end of the nineteenth century. zinc production in Europe was a monopoly of the Belgian capitalists. The Belgian society Jine de Campine in Budeli (on the border of Belgium and Holland) sent its representative N.V. Filkovich, lieutenant of the fleet reserve to the Caucasus. In 1890, when Filkovich got to the Sadonsky mine, he immediately (in 1891) received the right from the Mining Department to use the zinc blende accumulated in the waste of the plant and send it abroad through Novorossiysk. On the export to Belgium of zinc blende, which used to be dumped at the Sadon mines, N.V. Filkovich made a fortune.
By this time, in government circles, there was an opinion that the reason for the unprofitability of enterprises is their state ownership. N.V. Filkovich took advantage of this and began to push for the Sadonsky mine to be in private hands. Filkovich managed to convince the government that Belgian capital would build a large zinc distillation plant and rid the Russian industry of importing zinc. “He signed a contract with the department for 60 years to lease the Sadonsky mine, the Alagirsky silver-lead plant, as well as the adjacent plot of the Tseysko-Kassarsky forest dacha, with an area of about 2929 dessiatines. The contract provided for the tenant to pay to the treasury 20 kopecks from each pood of lead and litharge. from each pood of pure silver for 100 rubles. and from a pood of zinc ore, 8 kopecks. .
In 1896, with the consent of the government, the Russian-Belgian Mining and Chemical Society Alagir was established with a capital of 4.5 million rubles, Russian citizens owned 40% of the shares, the Belgians - 30% (Liège and Brussels banks), the French - 12%, Dutch - 9%, German - 7%, English - 2%. In parallel, in the city of Liege, there was another board headed by F. Sepulkrom. The new owners were in no hurry to intensify production, since the production of zinc in Europe was a monopoly of the Belgian capitalists, they were afraid that with the introduction of new technologies in the processing of zinc in Russia, the plant in Ossetia could become a serious competitor to similar enterprises in Belgium. Therefore, the Belgians focused their attention on increasing the extraction of ore, in 1897 they closed the silver-lead plant in Alagir and sent the lead concentrates for smelting to Belgium, that is, they grossly violated the terms of the contract ... To increase the extraction of ore from Belgium, specialists arrived led by a new director mine Desiree Hariga - Belgian subjects of Spanish origin "with the character of a mad beast." Having fired old workers and increased the number of workers to 400 people, and the length of the working day from 8 to 12 hours, introducing countless fines, he brought the extraction of ore in 1898 to 751,443 pounds, which was exported to Belgium. Hariga received a commendation from the Managing Director of Alagir Island in Belgium, F.F. Sepulkra, who promised to petition for awarding him with the Order of Merit in the development of the mining business in Russia. On this occasion, Omarov, a mining engineer of the Terek regional government, wrote to the director of the mining department: “What is the merits of the named Kharig in the development of the mining business in Russia, I positively do not know; his activity in this regard was expressed only in the wiring of ordinary adits with primitive haulage paths. The only news is the transfer of power over a distance, from the engine to the processing plant - arranged specifically for this purpose by seconded engineers, without any participation of Kharig. The attitude of the named manager towards the workers is the most undesirable and rather deserves reproach, not encouragement. More than 100 old experienced workers left their jobs at the Sadon mine thanks to Kharig. The last one of the main opponents of the existence of the Alagir mining cash desk, which, by the grace of Kharig, lost more than 150 members, the number of members of this cash desk is not more than 16 people. In general, the situation of the workers at the Sadonsky mine is worse than at other mines and fields. For violating the rules on hiring workers, Khariga is accused and fined by the presence on mining matters for more than 2,000 rubles. Khariga is under investigation for five fatal accidents. That is, for Belgium, the merits of Harigi were obvious, which cannot be said about the merits to Russia and Ossetia.
When the price of the company's shares began to fall, the company's shares were not bought, then the decision was ripe to build a new plant in Vladikavkaz, which was delayed in every possible way. The shipment of raw ore to Belgium continued. Filkovich turned to the Ministry of Agriculture and state property asking for a reduction rent but he was refused. In 1901, the Liège Bank provided a loan of 1.5 million rubles. Having built a new plant in Vladikavkaz in 1901 with silver-lead and zinc shops, the Belgians installed outdated equipment in them, “removed from the corresponding plants Western Europe, including Belgium, and based mainly on the use of heavy physical labor. Using outdated equipment, which made it possible to extract only 37.5% of zinc, most of it was thrown into a dump with rimming slag. The Mizurskaya enrichment plant, workshops and power plants were built at the plant in Vladikavkaz. In 1902, the Vladikavkaz plant produced its first products.
Soon the cash desk of the society was empty again, Filkovich applied for a loan of 500 rubles. to the director of the Liege Bank G. Duquenn. But G. Dukenne not only refused, but demanded the immediate repayment of the debt of 1.5 million rubles. Filkovich also addressed the Minister of Finance S.Yu. Witte and the director of the State Bank for a loan of 1 million rubles, he was denied. In January 1903, the company stopped paying shares, all work at the mine was stopped, and the workers were fired. Shareholders were in a hurry to get rid of the shares that G. Dukenne bought up for a pittance, becoming the de facto owner of the enterprise. These business takeover schemes are often used and modern banks. All management of the affairs of the company "Alagir" was given to G. Dukenne without any interference from the shareholders.
As one of the Russian shareholders of the Alagir company, collegiate adviser A. Skaron, wrote to the Viceroy of His Imperial Majesty in the Caucasus during the First World War in 1916, “the shareholders were not only completely excluded from any participation in the business, but general meeting shareholders have never been convened by the administration ... Having bought for a pittance a significant part of the island's shares, concluding an agreement with it that is clearly unprofitable for him, Mr. Dukenne formed a special Belgian island in Belgium, closely connected with the Russian one, as is seen from a careful consideration of administration reports. At the same time, the Liège Bank ceded part of the shareholding island to a group of German capitals, who appointed as one of the administrators their authorized German subject Sauer, who had been in this position for many years and had left for Germany shortly before the very beginning of the war. At present, according to private information, the shares of the Belgian island also fell into the hands of the Germans, and thus the actual owners of the Russian enterprise are subjects of a power hostile to us, and the shareholders who invested their funds in the enterprise, and among which the highest persons are, are deprived any right to take part in the fate of this case. The richest zinc and silver-lead mines in the Caucasus are not properly exploited, despite the presence of a zinc-lead and chemical plants on them, and the state currently feels an acute need for these metals and mainly for chemical products produced by society's factories. Thus, the transfer of strategic enterprises into the hands of foreign capital created a threat to the national security of the country, to its national interests, and taking into account the foreign loans that Russia was forced to make due to the transition to the gold standard, led the country to catastrophic consequences - drawing Russia into the first world war and then to the revolutions of 1917.
According to Professor I.Ya. Froyanov, the world financial oligarchy pursued the goal of dismembering Russia, which became the subject of discussion during the Versailles Conference in 1919.
Liberal Western theories of the 19th century, as well as those borrowed by Russian scientists in the 90s. The twentieth century did not reveal the secrets of the success of the industrialization of Western countries, that none of them could modernize in an open economy. So, the industrialization of England at the end of the eighteenth century. was carried out under conditions of strict protectionism, after which it turned into a "workshop of the world". In the history of the twentieth century, the secrets of the "Japanese miracle" were "the strictest state control over the export of capital and effective state protectionism of national industry." Transnational companies were not allowed into Japan until the national industry was ready to compete with them. A.S. Panarin draws attention to the fact that “modern liberal theory deliberately ignores the real prerequisites for the “Pacific miracle” - the post-war rise of Japan, South Korea, and Taiwan. And this is understandable: this rise was made according to recipes that are directly opposite to the basic postulates of liberal anarchism. Instead of consumer selfishness, freed from the need to submit to collective priorities, the "Pacific tigers" relied on self-sacrifice and national self-esteem, requiring the speedy rise of their societies. There was no society of privileged consumption, no transfer of income abroad. That is, in the conditions of an open economy with borrowed liberal attitudes to educate consumer egoism, Russia turned into a field for robbery by Western financiers. “The liberal-minded intelligentsia tried to overcome the “traditional mentality” of other peoples, to impose on them races of “catching up development” - as if, in fact, history develops in only one direction, determined in the West, and therefore the whole world is doomed to become an adherent of the West. Western liberalism does not recognize either the pluralism of culture or the pluralism of the paths of history, and this fully reveals its non-reformation character.
Research methods. The author, comparing the processes of modernization of Russia with the English, Japanese and models of other countries and analyzing the archival sources on the economy of the Terek region introduced into scientific circulation for the first time, uses comparative historical research method.
Results of the study and their discussion. The paper summarizes some of the results of financial and economic reforms on the outskirts of the Russian Empire (Tersk region) in the 19th - early 20th centuries. In the discussion that began more than 100 years ago (V. Kokorev, S.F. Sharapov and others) and continues to this day (V.Yu. Katasonov, I.Ya. Froyanov and others), about the results of S.Yu. Witte on the introduction of the gold standard and the attraction of foreign capital to Russia, the author, based on an analysis of sources on the mining industry of Ossetia in the late XIX - early XX centuries, confirms the conclusions previously expressed by Dr. economic sciences V.Yu. Katasonov, Doctor of Philosophy A.S. Panarin, Doctor of Historical Sciences I.Ya. Froyanov and other representatives of Russian economic and historical thought.
According to the author, borrowing Western liberal values, abandoning the nationally oriented model of the economy, counting on the use and uncontrolled attraction of foreign capital and the transition to the gold standard of the ruble for this pose a threat to the national security of the country.
Reviewers:
Aylarova S.A., Doctor of History, Professor, Head. Department of History of the FGBUN "North Ossetian Institute for Humanitarian and Social Research named after A.I. IN AND. Abaev VSC RAS and the Government of North Ossetia-Alania, Vladikavkaz;
Khubulova S.A., Doctor of History, Professor of the Department recent history and Politics of Russia Federal State Budgetary Educational Institution of Higher Professional Education “North Ossetian State University named after K.L. Khetagurov, Vladikavkaz.
Big Encyclopedic Dictionary
The conventional monetary unit of Russia (0.774235 g of pure gold), introduced after the monetary reform of 1895 97, which established gold monometallism. Gold coins were minted in denominations of 5 and 10, as well as 15 rubles. (imperials) and 7 p. 50 k. (semi-imperials), ... ... Political science. Dictionary.
See Ruble gold Dictionary of business terms. Akademik.ru. 2001 ... Glossary of business terms
Monetary unit of Russia from 1897 to 1914 The gold content of the ruble was 0.774 g of pure gold. See also: Former monetary units Russian Federation Financial vocabulary Finam ... Financial vocabulary
Law Dictionary
Modern Encyclopedia
golden ruble- GOLDEN RUBLE, the conventional monetary unit of Russia (0.774235 g of pure gold), introduced after the monetary reform of 1895 97, which established gold monometallism. Gold coins were minted in denominations of 5 and 10, as well as 15 rubles. (imperials) and 7 rubles. fifty… … Illustrated Encyclopedic Dictionary
Monetary unit introduced in Russia according to the monetary reform of 1895-1897. The gold content of the ruble was 0.774 g of pure gold. Gold coins circulated in the form of imperials, semi-imperials, as well as 10 and 5 ruble coins. After starting... ... Economic dictionary
The conventional monetary unit of Russia (0.774235 g of pure gold), introduced after the monetary reform of 1895 97, which established gold monometallism. Gold coins were minted in denominations of 5 and 10, as well as 15 rubles. (imperials) and 7 rubles. 50 kopecks… … encyclopedic Dictionary
golden ruble- the conventional monetary unit of Russia (0.774235 g of pure gold), introduced after the reform of 1895-1897, which established gold monometallism. Gold coins were minted in denominations of 5, 10, and 15 rubles. (imperials) and 7 rubles. 50 kop. (semi-imperials) ... Big Law Dictionary
In February 1895, the Minister of Finance of the Russian Empire, Sergei Yulievich Witte, prepared a report on the need to introduce free circulation of gold in the country. Already in 1987, a decree on the gold standard was issued, regulating the exchange rate of the gold ruble.
The need for reform has existed since the 1880s. In reports to Nicholas II, Witte noted the instability of the current monetary system. Before the introduction of the gold standard in Russia, the silver standard was adopted, which did not give any advantages over the economies of developed European countries.
Witte took as the basis for the future reform economic structure England, where it has already been adopted.
As early as May 8, 1895, the subjects of the Empire were able to conclude transactions for gold, and the offices of the State Bank received permission to buy. Some of the offices got the opportunity to give out coins in hand. And in June National Bank was able to accept gold coins into the account, and since November it was possible to pay with gold coins at the box office public institutions and railways. Rates were set by December: a gold semi-imperial with a face value of 5 rubles was sold for 7.4 rubles, the next year for 7.5 rubles.
By the time of the reform in the State Bank, the volume of gold coins amounted to 1,095 million rubles (as opposed to 1,121 million rubles in banknotes). On August 29, the State Bank received the right to issue credit notes that could be freely exchanged for gold. By the time the gold standard of the ruble was introduced in the Russian Empire, the volume of credit notes was almost equal to the volume of gold coins.
The reform not only allowed to stabilize the economy of the Russian Empire, but significantly strengthened the ruble. The gold standard of the ruble became the most reliable in the whole world, and the ruble was trusted even in England, France and the USA. The policy of the authorities also contributed to this: already in 1899, the strictest requirements were introduced for the issuance of credit notes, which were provided with cash gold coins. Only the first 300 million rubles were not fully backed by gold. In the future, the issue was made only on the condition that the entire volume of bank notes was backed by monetary gold. By the beginning of the First World War, all tickets are 100%.
From 1914, gold coins disappeared from circulation, and the free exchange of credit notes for gold was discontinued. The total supply of monetary gold at that time amounted to 2170 million rubles and could increase even more, including after the end of the war. But the revolution of 1917 prevented this.
With the emergence of the USSR, the country's economy was in decline and required significant support. To do this, already in 1923, the government tried to introduce a new gold standard for the ruble. The main goal was to improve monetary circulation and the strengthening of the Soviet currency. New coins were issued with a face value of "one chervonets", which coincided in weight with a coin with a face value of 10 rubles in 1987 (7.74235 grams). This did not give any results: the number of coins turned out to be too small (after the war and the revolution, gold reserves practically disappeared), and the exchange was limited.
The introduction of the gold standard of the ruble in the USSR pursued another task - the stabilization of foreign trade relations. In particular, in parallel with the chervonets, which circulated only within the borders of the country, coins with a face value of 10 rubles were minted, which were used on the foreign market. It was these coins that helped the government to purchase all the necessary goods abroad: they were accepted unconditionally.
The end of the new gold standard of the ruble came already in the 1930s: with the beginning of industrialization, the ruble noticeably weakened, and the new gold coins of 1937 could not be converted into gold even with the permission of the authorities.
End XIX and start XX centuries was a time of significant change in Russian economy. Industry in the country grew at a rapid pace, the state headed for accelerated industrialization. Quick the economic growth at the turn of the two centuries is associated mainly with the activities of Sergei Yulievich Witte, Minister of Finance of the Russian Empire in 1892 -1903
gg.
Witte pursued a policy of promoting the development of industry. The essence of the measures taken by him is as follows:
customs protection of domestic industry from competition from abroad (customs tariff adopted in 1891
year, became the basis of this patronage);
attracting capital from abroad (both in the form of loans and investments);
creation of a stock of domestic financial resources, primarily due to the wine monopoly, which has become one of the main sources of income in the country's budget;
increased taxation, primarily indirect.
The essence of Witte's monetary reform was the introduction of gold money circulation. The Russian paper ruble was inexchangeable, which led to sharp fluctuations in its exchange rate, hindered the development of foreign trade and the inflow of foreign capital. AT 1895
year Witte introduced Nicholas II his report, the essence of which boiled down to the need to introduce a gold standard in the state (following the example of Great Britain).
In addition to establishing a solid state currency and its gold backing, it was also necessary to introduce gold coins into money turnover. This task, in fact, was psychological. In the Russian Empire, coins from this metal were minted for a long time, but they were rarely used in money circulation among the population. People perceived them as a kind of jewel or used them to make some external payments. The practice is also known when the emperor gave gold coins to especially distinguished officials or the military.
The main step towards the establishment of gold circulation was the adoption 8
May 1895
In the 1990s, the law, according to which transactions were now concluded in gold, gave the State Bank the right to buy gold coins, and bank branches to make payments with these coins. Not only the State Bank, but also private banks began to accept gold coins. Two years later, another law was passed. According to it, the main bank of the state was able to issue credit notes, which could be freely exchanged for gold.
Witte himself 1898
summed up his reform by declaring that monetary system of the state has been put in order and from now on it corresponds to the best monetary systems of other states, where they have been formed for centuries.
Witte's monetary reform stabilized the economic situation in the country, establishing a stable and firm exchange rate for the ruble and making the Russian investment climate more attractive. The ruble has become one of the most stable currencies in the world, which, accordingly, has attracted a flow of investments into the country. Transformations in the country's monetary system helped to integrate Russian state into the world market.
Nevertheless, Witte's reform activities were constantly met with resistance. Officials and aristocrats who had influence at the court of the emperor defended conservative principles in the development of the country, advocating the preservation of all noble privileges to power, essentially feudal remnants. This confrontation at the turn of two centuries ended not in favor of the Minister of Finance. Moreover, it has changed economic situation in the world. Intensive developing in 1890-
th years, industries such as metallurgy, engineering, coal and oil production, were in crisis. These factors have led to 1903
Mr. Witte was dismissed.
Thus, the essence of Witte's monetary reform can be formulated as follows.
The prerequisites for it were:
- interest of foreign investments in the Russian economy,
- the development of industrial capitalism in the country,
- stock of the state gold fund,
- expansion of markets (both within the country and with foreign partners),
- stabilization of the state financial system.
The mechanism of its implementation is as follows:
- gold was recognized as legal tender,
- the functions of a bargaining chip were assigned to silver,
- the issuing rights of the State Bank were determined by law,
- in circulation were at the same time credit notes, freely exchangeable for gold, and full-fledged money.
Its economic results were:
- establishment of the gold standard in the Russian monetary system,
- new appeal structure Money in the country,
- stabilization of monetary relations,
- the economic growth.
Creation in Russia of a national payment system and the transition to the use of the national currency in the internal and external operations of Russian banks and companies are moving from the area of discussion to the area of practice. At the same time, a number of issues related to such a transition remain debatable. The idea that Russia should sell its energy and other raw materials not only for dollars, but also for rubles, was expressed already in the last decade. A commodity exchange was even created to trade oil for rubles, although it was not possible to promote this trade. Critics of the idea of switching to the use of the ruble in Russia's foreign trade rightly drew attention to the fact that national currencies exporting countries of raw materials and energy (and Russia is one of them) are unstable, so the attitude of market participants towards such currencies is wary. In this regard, supporters of replacing the dollar with the ruble suggested making the ruble gold, arguing that then, they say, the ruble would turn into a hard currency, not subject to any market winds. This implies that the single gold ruble will be used both within the country and in external settlements. Some of the supporters of this project nostalgically recall the golden ruble S.Yu. Witte, who was born in 1897, someone is G. Sokolnikov's gold chervonets of the mid-1920s.
Unfortunately, it is extremely rare in the literature to find a serious analysis of the consequences of the introduction of the gold ruble by the Russian Minister of Finance S.Yu. Witte. Let me remind you that Russian ruble in the second half of the 19th century, he walked around the European stock exchanges and was a favorite toy for currency speculators in Berlin, Paris and other European financial capitals. Even Witte's predecessors, finance ministers Bunge and Vyshnegradsky, proposed to strengthen the ruble, making it gold. However, this required a solid gold reserve, which Russia did not have. Although Russia was a gold-mining country, but to create the necessary reserves, it was necessary to dig and wash the precious metal for several decades. Another source of replenishment of the gold reserves could be the export of grain. Vyshnegradsky shouted: "We won't finish it, but we'll take it out." They began to do so, but even this was not enough to turn the ruble into a stable currency. The third and most important source of replenishment of the gold treasury of the Russian Empire was gold loans. Gold on a returnable and paid basis could be provided by the Rothschilds, who, after the Napoleonic Wars, concentrated large reserves of the yellow metal in their hands. And for this metal to work, that is, to bring interest, it was necessary to plant a gold standard in the world. Great Britain was the first to adopt the gold standard (1821), and after Bismarck introduced the gold mark in Germany in 1873, the process of introducing gold standards went like an avalanche. By the way, it was from 1873 that the Great Depression began in Europe, which lasted 23 years. The connection between the introduction of gold currencies and the economic downturn was clear.
Gold currency - a noose of the national economy
Russia was drawn into the "gold club" at the end of the 19th century, and for it it turned out to be a particularly unbearable burden, since the coverage of the ruble with gold in our country approached 100% (higher than in other European countries). The Russian Empire was constantly suffocated by a lack of money, the gold standard turned into a gold noose for it. In order to at least slightly loosen the stranglehold, a policy of attracting foreign capital was pursued (in fact, attracting the currencies of the gold standard countries to the country). Industry and the banking sector were under the control of foreigners. In terms of production of many types of industrial and agricultural products, Russia before the First World War occupied 4-5 places, but in terms of external debt it came out on top in the world. The golden ruble was considered a hard currency, but it was backed by debts, not gold, since the gold in the vaults of the State Bank was borrowed. The country was rapidly losing its sovereignty, turning into a colony of the West. That was the price of Witte's gold ruble.
And throughout the world, the gold standard turned out to be short-lived. At the start of World War I European countries were forced to suspend the gold standard (the exchange of paper money for metal was stopped). After the war, it was restored only in some countries (Great Britain and France), and in a truncated form (the so-called gold bullion standard). The currencies of different countries retained their connection with gold indirectly - through exchange for the US dollar, British pound, French franc. By the mid 1930s. in conditions economic crisis the gold standard was completely dismantled.
The most recent version of the gold standard is the gold dollar standard, which was set 70 years ago at the Bretton Woods conference. The connection between the world of money and gold was ensured through the exchange of the US dollar for the yellow metal, whose reserves in America after the war reached 70% of world reserves (excluding the USSR). However, less than three decades later, the gold-dollar standard ceased to exist, the connection between the world of money and gold was interrupted, it turned into an ordinary exchange commodity.
World experience shows that gold is an extremely unimportant means of maintaining the stability of money circulation. In addition, the growth of gold reserves always lags behind the growth of the economy, so gold, like money, quickly begins to act as a brake. economic development. The gold standard is needed only by those who have a lot of yellow metal and who are ready to lend it. The owners of gold are getting richer, the rest of the world is getting poorer and falling into decay.
New plans for the "golden strangulation" of mankind and Russia
Since the crash monetary system Bretton Woods has already been four decades. All these years the price of gold has been artificially low. It was bought up by a very narrow handful of world bankers (they are conventionally called the "Rothschild group"). Apparently, most of the gold vaults of central banks and the Fort Knox vault, where in the late 1930s were devastated. US Treasury gold was stockpiled. And now the moment has come when the world's bankers are ready to once again play golden roulette with the rest of the world. Increasingly, voices are heard in different countries repeating that we need a new Bretton Woods with a gold currency and fixed exchange rates. This is a version of the reincarnation of the gold standard on a global scale.
It is proposed to introduce gold money in individual countries without waiting for a new Bretton Woods. For several years now, the topic of the golden yuan has been obsessively exaggerated in the media. And now the idea of a golden ruble is becoming popular. In essence, these are proposals of economic suicide.
Firstly, a country that decides to introduce a gold currency will have to accumulate the yellow metal according to the principle “we are not enough to eat, but we will take it out”. In the times of Vyshnegradsky and Witte, grain was exported, now Russia is being asked to export oil and natural gas intensively. Russian gold reserves are estimated at about 50 billion dollars, they can provide only 7-10% of the current volume of the ruble mass. One can imagine how much more “under-eating” will be needed to prove to the world that Russia can have the most “hard” currency.
Secondly, after the introduction of the gold currency, as already mentioned, it turns into a brake and a noose. It will be possible to alleviate the stranglehold only with the help of gold loans, but loans provide only temporary relief, and then, as a number of historical examples show, a fatal outcome can follow.
The golden ruble is not needed for industrialization
In the mid 1920s. in the USSR, the idea also soared to make the Soviet chervonets gold. It was gold only nominally, that is, it was provided with gold (as well as other valuables), but the paper sign of the gold coin was not exchanged for metal. The then People's Commissar for Finance, G. Sokolnikov, stated that the Soviet gold chervonets would circulate on all currency exchanges in the world. In those days, there was a sharp struggle in the party and government around the problem of the convertibility of paper chervonets into gold. The exchange of chervonets for gold, however, did not come that way, a fundamentally different type of monetary system began to take shape. Paper money circulated within the country. banknotes- banknotes and treasury notes. Paper money was supplemented by non-cash money, which served the sphere of production. In the sphere of external payments, the state currency monopoly operated, and the ruble was not used for external transactions. Thanks to that monetary system, which developed in the USSR by the beginning of the 1930s, the country managed to industrialize. Before the start of the Great Patriotic War, almost 10,000 new enterprises were built. And by the way, the West did not lift economic sanctions against the USSR in the 1930s. Under the sanctions, the USSR used the sale of gold on the world market to purchase machinery and equipment, while the country increased its stock of gold as a strategic resource in view of the impending threat of war. According to some sources, the Soviet gold reserves on the eve of the war exceeded 2,000 tons.
It is one thing to accumulate and use the precious metal as a strategic resource, another thing is the introduction of the gold currency and the peg of the national monetary unit to the yellow metal stock. If the first is necessary to ensure economic independence, then the second is inevitably associated with the risk of financial enslavement of the country ...
